Class blog for Anth 249: Evolution and human disease. We will be responding to class readings and engaging with the wider network of blogs and online content on evolutionary medicine. We might also make up some fun projects along the way.

Sunday, April 7, 2013

First Reader - Disease and the Agricultural Revolution

I found very interesting in the text, the discussion about
the impact of the agricultural revolution and its effects on infectious
disease. While, I feel that in the West the agricultural revolution is still
largely hailed as a step towards civilization, it was as well a step towards
the epidemic diseases we still live with. Early humans were not sedentary,
following practices of hunting and gathering, they moved around following food
and did not establish large urban areas. The authors of the text note that the
pathogens that effected early humans were ectoparasites, protozoa, fungi,
bacteria, and zoonotes (diseases that transfer between species, ex.
Tuberculosis from cattle to humans (p. 257)). These pathogens usually do not
lead to epidemics and spread slowly through populations (p. 255). With the advent
of agriculture as well came sedentary populations that begin to live in much
large population densities than are seen among hunter-gatherer groups. As well,
dealing with human waste, which was not an issue for mobile hunter-gatherer
groups, becomes a major potential health risk for urbanized populations. With
the rise of more domestication of animals came more zoonotes. Diets became less
balanced, and malnutrition became more widespread. The rise of trade helped to
spread diseases through in between distant populations. These conditions are
conducive to the rise of things like plague or smallpox that have the potential
to erupt into major epidemics with the potential to kill mass amounts of people
(p. 256-59). While we have been able to control many deadly epidemic disease such as smallpox for some years, the threat of resistant strains may result in massive epidemics in the future.